Code of Practice

A consortium led by Building Research Establishment BRE and CIRIA, with input from the DEFRA PFR Roundtable, made up of cross industry expertise have developed a robust guide that provides a standardised approach for the delivery and management of Property Flood Resilience PFR.

The initiative was developed as over 2.4 million UK properties are at risk from river and coastal flooding and a further 2.7 million are at risk from surface water flooding.

The new Code of Practice and guidance for PFR, published in early 2021, aims to “improve confidence in property flood resilience and subsequent take-up”. It consists of a standalone CoP for property flood resilience, supporting guidance on the CoP and complementary guides for households and businesses as well as local authority planners.

The Code of Practice and guidance was funded by Aviva, the Environment Agency, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the Department for Infrastructure, Northern Ireland and supported by CIWEM, ICE and RICS.

CIWEM have been tasked by the Environment Agency to delivery training nationally on the COP to all industry participants and they are developing a Flood Compliance Platform database to provide evidence and a robust audit trail to demonstrate compliance with the six steps and three overriding principles of the COP.